A California Highway Patrol officer carries his rifle near the shooting scene in Santa Cruz, Calif., where two Santa Cruz detectives were shot and killed Tuesday. / Dan Coyro, AP

by John Bacon and Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by John Bacon and Michael Winter, USA TODAY

The convicted peeping Tom who killed two detectives in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Tuesday was distraught over his recent arrest and firing for a sexual-assault complaint filed by a co-worker, and he intended to harm police or others, officials said Wednesday.

Jeremy Peter Goulet, 35, was shot and killed about 30 minutes after he gunned down Sgt. Loren Butch Baker, a 28-year veteran of the force, and Detective Elizabeth Butler, a 10-year veteran. They were following up on his arrest Friday night for allegedly breaking into a co-worker's home and making inappropriate advances toward her. He was fired Saturday from his barista job at a coffee shop near the famous beach town's harbor.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said at news conference Wednesday that Goulet, a veteran of the Marine Corps and the Army, had three guns and was wearing body armor when he killed the officers on his doorstep. He then took their guns and stole Baker's car before dying in a brief shootout with police.

"Goulet made statements intending harm to people or the police," Wowak said. Family and friends described him as "despondent, distraught and destructive in nature."

Wowak praised officers for stopping "an imminent threat to the community." Baker and Butler were the first officers to be killed in the department's 150-year history.

Goulet owned three guns, including a .40-caliber semiautomatic Sig Sauer and a 9mm Baretta. His father, Ronald, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that his son "always had guns" and liked "to go target shooting and stuff like that. More of a collector."

Five years ago, Goulet was convicted of a sex crime for filming a 22-year-old Portland, Ore., woman as she showered in her condominium, and of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit for firing a handgun during a struggle with the woman's boyfriend, The Oregonian newspaper reported.

Goulet admitted at his trial that he liked to use his phone camera to secretly record women showering or getting undressed, and he was ordered to undergo sex-offender treatment. He later was jailed after a disagreement with his probation officer.

Late last year, Goulet moved from Berkeley to Santa Cruz, a city of 60,000 about 70 miles south of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. A neighbor described him as "super, super creepy," and said Goulet had lost his job at a Berkeley coffee shop.

Goulet's father said his son went to Santa Cruz to start a new life.

"He just wanted to move close to the coast, so he moved down there, got a job, and moved in with some roommates," he told to the Sentinel.

But his obsession with photographing women as they showered or undressed was his downfall in the military and at school, his father told the Associated Press.

"He's got one problem: peeping in windows," he said. "I asked him, 'Why don't you just go to a strip club?' He said he wants a good girl that doesn't know she's being spied on, and said he couldn't stop doing it."

Police Chief Kevin Vogel called Tuesday the "darkest day in the history of the Santa Cruz Police Department."

"Our department is in mourning; this is a horrific day," Vogel said. Baker was married and the father of two daughters, while Butler leaves behind two young sons.

"Tonight we are heartbroken at the loss of two of our finest police officers who were killed in the line of duty, protecting the community we love," Mayor Hilary Bryant said Tuesday night. "This is an exceptionally shocking and sad day for Santa Cruz and our police department. We offer our deepest sympathy and prayers to the families and the fellow officers of our fallen heroes."

Schools Superintendent Gary Bloom told the Sentinel that about 50 students and adults were present at the nearby Branciforte Small Schools Campus, a home for alternative programs, when the shooting took place around 3:30 p.m. Gunshots were audible inside the building, he said.

Bloom said about 100 people were at nearby Branciforte Middle School, which was briefly locked down. Bloom said the schools opened Wednesday.

"We will be working with staff to talk kids through the trauma of this event," he told the Sentinel.

A store clerk a few buildings from the shooting said the final shootout was "terrifying."

"We ducked. We have big desks so under the desks we went," said the clerk, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity and asked that her store not be identified because she feared for her safety.

The Sentinel said the shooting comes after several weeks of turmoil in the city, including a murder, a violent grocery store robbery, a home-invasion robbery, the shooting of a UC Santa Cruz student and the rape of another woman on campus.

Deborah Elston, co-founder of Santa Cruz Neighbors, told the Sentinel that the events of the past few weeks made her feel "like my freedom and safety are being challenged; I am also saying now is the time to be stronger. Sadly I hope this will wake people up to the truth about some underlying things going on in this community."